While drilling a wellbore in subsurface formations, it is advantageous for measurement and command information to be transferred between the surface and the drilling tools in a timely fashion. Some drilling systems employ a high-speed communication network including communication media (e.g., one or more wires) embedded in the drill pipes to facilitate timely information transfer between surface and downhole systems. Such drill pipe, known as “wired drill pipe” (WDP) includes communicative couplers at each end of each pipe joint and the aforementioned communication media extending between the couplers.
A system employing WDP for communication may include hundreds of individual wired drill pipes connected in series. Repeater subs may be interspersed among the WDPs to extend communication range. If one WDP (or repeater sub) has an electrical fault, then the entire communication system may fail.